Half a Million Indonesian Fishermen Affected by Bad Weather

Jakarta Globe, Armando Siahaan, January 20, 2011

Jakarta. Almost half a million fisherman from 20 Indonesian provinces have been unable to go out to sea because of the bad weather affecting the country, a government minister said on Thursday.

To help the nearly 474,000 fishermen whose livelihoods had been affected by the situation, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad urged district heads and governors to dip into rice reserves and funds from the Social Affairs Ministry.

He said, based on the ministry’s calculations, that 13,721 tons of rice were needed for the affected fishermen and their families.

According to a Social Affairs Ministry regulation, in a time of social disaster, the government could distribute 0.4 kg of rice per person for two weeks.

Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri told reporters that his ministry had approximately Rp 540 billion ($59.4 million) in deconcentration funds distributed to regional governments, which could be used to help the fishermen and their families. A deconcentration fund is the central government’s money handed to provincial administrations for various development programs.

“District heads, governors, please do something to help the fishermen that were affected by the extreme weather,” he said.

The extreme weather has already caused significant flooding and damage to several provinces, including in parts of Java and East Nusa Tenggara.

“The extreme weather is expected to last until April, although the daily situation will fluctuate,” Kukuh Ribudianto, from the National Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said on Sunday.

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Mentawai tsunami moved at 800 km per hour : Expert

Antara News, Wednesday, November 10, 2010 22:30 WIB

Padang, W Sumatra (ANTARA Bews) - Indonesian and Japanese tsunami experts have concluded that the tsunami that hit the Mentawai Islands recently had moved at a speed of 800 km per hour at sea.

"Based on the results of research conducted by tsunami experts from LIPI, Tokyo University and Hokkaido University, the tsunami at Maonai, Sabeuguggung, Purorougat, North Pagai, had moved at a speed of 800 kilometers per hour at sea and at 30-40 kilometers per hour after land fall ," an earthquake specialist of LIPI`s geotechnology division, , Eko Yulianto, said here Wednesday.

The tsunami surged over a distance of 100-250 meters inland , depending on the height of the tidal wave, he said.

"The height of the tidal wave that hit North Pagai was around six to seven meters," he said.

The tsunami in North Pagai occurred seven minutes after a magnitude- 7.2 earthquake had rocked the region on October 25, he said.

The epicenter of the earthquake lay close to the Mentawai Islands, he said.

Therefore, the information given to the local people that the tsunami would occur 30 minutes after the quake was incorrect, he said.

Eko advised anyone not to wait for an instruction from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) about what to do when an earthquake with the potential to cause tsunami happened. It was also unnecessary to measure the magnitude of the earthquake when an emergency situation occurred, he said.

"It is better for us to evacuate to the hills," he said.

The earthquake that shook the Mentawai Islands was recorded to measure 7.2 on the Richter Scale and triggered a tsunami on Monday (Oct 25) at 09.42 p.m. local time.

The epicenter of the earthquake lay at 3.61 degrees Southern Latitude and 99.93 degrees Eastern Longitude at a depth of 10 kilometers below sea level.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located 78 kilometers southwest of South Pagai, Mentawai, West Sumatra, 102 kilometers southwest of North Pagai, Mentawai, West Sumatra, 158 kilometers Southeast of Sipora, Mentawai, West Sumatra, 174 kilometers Southwest of Mukomuko, Bengkulu, and 817 kilometers Northwest the Jakarta Bay.

'No alert' in Indonesian tsunami

BBC News, 27 October 2010 Last updated at 13:43 GMT

A crucial link in Indonesia's tsunami warning system was not working during Monday's tsunami because it had been vandalised, says an Indonesian official.

Whole villages were wiped out by the tsunami

Hundreds of people were killed and many are missing as a result of the tsunami, which was generated by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra.

The earthquake unleashed a 3m-high (10ft) wave that crashed into the remote Mentawai islands, levelling a number of villages.

Survivors have said no warning was given.

Ridwan Jamaluddin, of the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, told the BBC's Indonesian service that two buoys off the Mentawai islands were vandalised and so out of service.

"We don't say they are broken down but they were vandalised and the equipment is very expensive. It cost us five billion rupiah each (£353,000; $560,000).

Another official, from the Indonesian Climatology Agency told the BBC's Indonesian service that both tide gauges and buoys are used to detect a tsunami, but the buoys are more important to generating an early warning.

"To predict a tsunami, we need the data from the buoy and the tide gauge, which is located near the beach. The buoy is more important because it is on the sea, so it will record the wave much quicker that the tide gauge," said the official, named Fauzi.

Difficulties

Residents of the Mentawai islands have told the BBC they heard no tsunami warning.

"There was not any siren to warn people in Sikakap [a small town on North Pagai island]," said Ferdinand Salamanang.

"Yes there was a quake and tsunami detection system in our port, but they are broken down. We did not hear any warning this time."

Almost exactly two years ago Indonesia launched its new tsunami early warning centre, designed to give people in coastal areas enough time to escape any waves before they reach land.

1. Recorder on seabed measures pressure and sends data to buoy.
2. Buoy also detects changes in sea level and motion. Tide gauges, usually sited on land, detect tidal changes.
3. Information is transmitted via satellite to ground stations which assess risk of tsunami.

The project was launched after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, which hit the country in 2004.

A quarter of a million people on the ocean shores died, more than half of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra and close to the earthquake's epicentre.

The system was meant to be completed in 2010 but it is still a work in progress, says Tiziana Bonapace, a disaster risk specialist with the UN.

"Earthquake and sea-level monitoring systems are in place, but what has proven more difficult is how to get warnings out to remote areas in time," she told the BBC.

"This remains the weakest link in the system, and unfortunately the tsunami hit one of the farthest outlying islands. Further exacerbating the situation is that buoys do malfunction, and many countries have been experiencing difficulties in this regard."

'Too late'

A more difficult challenge, she said, was instilling at the community level an awareness of the potential for disasters and how to prepare for them.

Even if the system had been fully functioning, the earthquake struck so close to the islands that an alert may not have given residents enough time to escape.

"Pagai island is very close to the epicentre, so the waves reached Pagai island in just five or 10 minutes," Ridwan Jamaluddin said.

"Even if the buoy is on, it is still too late to warn the people."

That view is echoed by Andrew Judge of SurfAid International, a humanitarian agency that has worked in the area for 10 years.

"The distance from the epicentre was very short... there's no time to act" on an alert, he told the BBC.

The Mentawai islands are very remote and communications are very difficult, he said. "Those people wouldn't have been reached by an alert."

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Parliament to evaluate BMKG for giving wrong information

Antara News, Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The House of Representatives (DPR)`s Commission V plans to evaluate the performance of the National Meteorological, Climatology, Geophysics Agency (BMKG), a legislator said.

"We will call BMKG officials after our recess to evaluate the performance of BMKG regarding information on tsunami in Mentawai," Lasarus, at Parliament Building, here, Wednesday.

He criticized BMKG for giving wrong information on the Mentawai tsunami.

When a magnitude-7.2 earthquake hit Mentawai Island on Monday evening (Oct 25), BMKG issued a warning that the earthquake could trigger tsunami. However, not long after that, BMKG issued information that the earthquake did not have the potential to cause tsunami.

"As an official government institution, BMKG is considered to have given the publlic misleading information which led to the deaths of hundreds of people. It`s obviously misleading. Why was BMKG so careless?" he said.

He also asked legislators from West Sumatra to react to the misleading information.

The House`s Commission V had fully supported BMKG so far, especially regarding the budget so that BMKG could work optimally to anticipate possible disasters and to correctly inform the public, he said.

The tsunami hit Mentawai islands, West Sumatra Province, following a 7.2 magnitude undersea earthquake on Monday night.

By Tuesday night, the death toll in the disasters rose to 112. At least 502 people were missing and thousands of others evacuated to safer grounds following the tsunami.

Aftershocks continued to happen in Mentawai, West Sumatra, following the magnitude-7.2 quake . A quake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale followed at 10 pm at a depth of 22 kilometers, 89 kilometers southwest of Pagai Selatan.

Another quake was also recorded at 5.0 on the Richter Scale at 10.31 pm at a depth of 34 kilometers, 51 kilometers southwest of Pagai Selatan.

SBY warns travelers about extreme weather threat

AdiantoP. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 08/11/2010 9:59 AM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has told travelers and transportation operators to bewary of extreme weather, as millions are expected to return to their hometownsfor the Idul Fitri holiday next month.

During a Cabinet meeting at the State Secretariat on Tuesday, Yudhoyono ordered theTransportation Ministry and the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency(BMKG) to take measures to prevent transportation accidents caused by poorweather conditions.

“Extreme weather changes have already hit Indonesia,” he said.

“The weather is currently unfriendly; we need to remind people to be careful.”

Idul Fitri falls on Sept. 10 and 11 this year.

Millions of people from big cities across the country will return to their hometowns ina nationwide phenomenon called mudik, to celebrate Idul Fitri with theirrelatives.

The most popular transportation modes include airplane, ferry, bus, train, private carand motorcycle.

Yudhoyono said the BMKG needed to share weather forecasts with local governments and seaand land transportation operators.

“Don’t underestimate [the importance of weather forecasts],” he said.

The President mentioned the severe weather conditions currently plaguing severalother countries at the moment, including forest fires in Russia, landslides inChina and floods in Pakistan and India.

The BMKG posts daily weather forecasts and information about tidal activity on itswebsite.

The BMKG earlier forecast that this year’s dry season would arrive in Sumatra, Java,Bali, Sulawesi and Maluku sometime from May to June.

The forecast was then revised to July due to unexpected rises in sea temperaturesthat caused massive evaporation and heavy rains.

The agency said the La Nina weather phenomena would also cause extreme weather inIndonesia.

Last March,the BMKG issued an annual weather forecast stating that the dry season wouldfall in June at the latest.

However, rains continue to sweep several big cities in the country, including Jakarta.

Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said he had sent letters to governors, regents andmayors telling them to take action to prevent transportation accidents.

“All air, land and sea transportation operators must halt operations if the BMKGissues a serious weather warning,” he said.

Experts have said extreme weather conditions could increase in intensity due to climatechange caused by global warming.

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Nine Indonesian Fishermen Missing After Storm In Madura Strait

Jakarta Globe

Nine fishermen from Situbondo, East Java, were reported missing after their boat was hit by high waves during a storm in the Madura Strait.

On Wednesday night, seventeen fishermen went to sea from Mimbo Beach in Situbondo only to be hit by high waves and a storm two hours. Eight men survived and were found by passing fishermen’s boats in the Madura Strait on Thursday. The other nine fishermen were missing.

One of the survivors, Hasan, told SCTV on Friday that he survived by holding on to a log in the ocean. He said the boat capsized after a three-meter wave hit them. A search and rescue team was sweeping the area where the fishermen were found, but the search effort could be called off at any time due to bad weather.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency stated on its Web site on Friday that Indonesia would be hit hard by bad weather over the next three days.

The agency reported that from January 15 to 18 there would be heavy rainstorms with lightning and strong winds in various parts of Indonesia, including Jakarta.

South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Bangka-Belitung, Lampung, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, the northern part of Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua were also put on alert.

The bad weather is being caused by wind pressure extending from the Java Sea to Banda Sea, influencing the occurrence of rain clouds, notably in the southern parts of Indonesia.

BMKG had already issued a dangerous sea weather warning on Wednesday this week for the Java Sea and Bali Strait. Ship operators and fishermen were advised to delay any kinds of sea travel for at least three days because of high waves and strong wind.

Waves in Java Sea to reach 3.5 meters

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 01/10/2010 3:47 PM

Waves in the Java Sea will rise from 1.5 to 3.5 meters in the next two days, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned.

"The wind will blow at high speeds and heavy rain will fall," Sinta Andayani, an official at the Maritim Perak branch office of the BMKG, told kompas.com on Sunday.

High waves will also hit Bawean, Masalembu, and Sumenep waters, she added.

A motorboat was damaged and consequently ran aground after being battered by strong sea waves at the weekend.

Tsunami early warning system fails during W Java quake

Antara, Wednesday, September 2, 2009 19:06 WIB

Palabuhanratu, Sukabumi (ANTARA News) - A tsunami early warning system or TEWS installed at Palabuhanratu Beach, Sukabumi district, West Java, did not work well when a powerful earthquake rocked the area at 02:55 pm on Wednesday.

7.3 shock: An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale jolted the southern part of West Java at 2:55 p.m. on Wednesday. The tremor was felt as far as Jakarta and Yogyakarta in Central Java. (The Jakarrta Post)

ANTARA News learned at the beach on the occasion that the TEWS sounded for 10 seconds but then stopped.

At the same time, electricity in the area was also down.

A powerful earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale shook southwest Tasikmalaya, West Java, on Wednesday at 02.55 pm Western Indonesia Standard Time (WIB), causing people as far as in Jakarta to be panic-stricken.

The quake`s epicenter was located at 8.24 degrees southern latitude, and 107.32 degrees eastern longitude, according to information from the meteorological, climatology, and geophysics (BMKG) office.

Meanwhile, head of the Palabuhanratu Fishery Port (PPNP), Arief Rahman said the quake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami at the Pelabuhanratu because the region was blocked by the Ujung Genteng Beach.

"But if another aftershock happens, people are suggested to immediately take the evacuation route," Rahman said.

Information obtained from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, said the quake`s epicenter was at 142 kilometers southwest of Tasikmalaya, West Java at a depth of 30 kilometers beneath the sea level.

The quake that lasted about one minute was also felt in Jakarta and some areas of West Java.

However, about 200 fishermen who were at sea were not disturbed and continued their activity.

There were no immediate reports of casualties and damage caused by the earthquake.

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Hundreds of people take refuge due to earthquake in N Sulawesi

Manado, North Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Hundreds of people living in coastal areas in Talaud District fled their homes to find higher ground in fear of a possible tsunami following a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that hit the region early Thursday morning.

 

But the temblor which occurred at 1.34 am local time was not followed by public tsunami alarms so that the panic-stricken residents went back to their homes later in the morning, Tonny Lamagari, a local resident, said here on Thursday.

 

The powerful quake damaged several houses and at least five persons were reported injured, he said.

 

The quake`s epicenter was located at 3.85 degrees northern latitude and 126.67 degrees eastern longitude, around 112 km southeast of Melonguane, Talaud District, at a depth of 10 km below sea level.

 

The temblor was felt at the IV-V MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) by Talaud residents.

 

Meanwhile, an officer at Manado`s meteorological, geophysics and climaltlogical agency, Mudjianto, said the agency had initially issued a warning that the earthquake had the potential to trigger a tsunami. But the alert was later withdrawn as there were no signs of a rise in the sea level.

 

Tens of aftershocks with magnitudes ranging between 5 and 5.7 on the Richter scale continued to jolt Talaud later in the day.

Jakarta to revamp Manggarai sluice gates

Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/27/2009 1:27 PM

The city administration plans to build one more gate at South Jakarta's Manggarai sluice gates to regulate the water flow better.

"The new gate would be installed next to the existing ones, requiring the government to acquire some land plots," Pitoyo Subandrio, head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Public Works Ministry, said on Saturday.

"The new gate will reduce flooding because the water will run more smoothly than before."

Pitoyo said the space for the gates, which were built in the 1920s by the Dutch government, would be widened by a dozen meters.

The width of a gate is about six meters, excluding the pillars.

Included in the Manggarai revamp is the clearing of the areas along the Ciliwung River, from the Casablanca bridge to the Manggarai sluice gate.

Flood management expert Jan Jaap Brinkman from the Netherlands Water Research Institute (Deltares) confirmed the urgency of an additional gate in Manggarai.

"The Manggarai gates need to be improved because they are too small. At this moment it is two gates, but it needs to be three gates," Brinkman, who is also the team leader of Flood Hazarding Mapping 2 at the Public Works Ministry, said.

Brinkman was speaking after the signing of an agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the fields of meteorology, water management, climate change and early warning systems.

The administration is currently running flood mitigation projects in anticipation of the rainy season.

It is now dredging 12 waterways across the city, including in Pademangan River and Mati canal (in North Jakarta), Cakung River (East Jakarta) and Grogol in West Jakarta.

The Rp 23 billion (US$2.04 million) project is set to dredge 243,322 cubic meters of garbage out of the canals. The canals range from 467 meters to 3,533 meters long.

The administration is also working on the East Flood Canal project, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The canal will be the primary flood control mechanism for East and North Jakarta.

The 23.5-kilometer East Flood Canal will stretch across 11 subdistricts in East Jakarta and two subdistricts in North Jakarta.

PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol Tbk, developer of the Ancol recreational area, is building another five submersible water pumps at its site in anticipation of floods in February.

"We are building three new water pumps in West Ancol and two more in East Ancol to add to the existing 62 pumps; we hope they will be finished by February," Nurvita Sari, the developer's manager of property maintenance, said.

The new and existing pumps, each able to pump 30 cubic meters of water per minute, will drain water from households in Ancol to the Ancol River.

"After the water reaches Ancol River, it's the city's public works agency's responsibility to channel the water to Pluit and Sunter dams," she said.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said that in February the sea level would rise 1.2 meters above normal levels due to a high tide, with the possibility of heavy downpours.

YJ Harwanto, the developer's general manager of its corporate plan, said they were also raising the wave breakers, adding night shifts to watch over the water level and setting up an information board about the sea level. (fmb)

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2 Port Officials Suspended Over Roles In Tragic West Sulawesi Ferry Disaster

The Jakarta Globe, Putri Prameshwari, January 23, 2009

 

 A member of a search and rescue team looks out at a naval rescue ship in Pare Pare port, on Jan. 12. At least 200 people are still unaccounted from the MV Teratai Prima ferry disaster. (Photo: Yusuf Ahmad, Reuters)

The Ministry of Transportation has summoned two port officials as part of an ongoing investigation into the MV Teratai Prima ferry disaster, which is believed to have claimed more than 300 lives.

 

Sunaryo, the ministry’s director general of sea transportation, said that Nurwahidah, the port administrator from Pare-Pare in South Sulawesi Province, and Sudiyono, the port administrator from Samarinda in East Kalimantan Province, had been suspended from their positions until further notice and summoned to Jakarta as part of the ministry’s internal investigation.

 

The ferry sank off the coast of Majene in West Sulawesi Province after reportedly being hit by large waves in the early hours of Jan. 11. The ferry was carrying at least 250 passengers and 17 crew members when it set off from Pare-Pare for Samarinda in East Kalimantan Province.

 

At least 200 people are still unaccounted for, though the actual figure is believed to be much higher.

 

South Sulawesi Police have arrested the captain of the ill-fated ferry, Sabir, who is facing charges of criminal negligence and a maximum sentence of five years in jail if convicted. He is alleged to have ignored storm warnings from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, or BMG. 

 

The National Transportation Safety Committee and National Search and Rescue Agency are conducting their own investigations, independent of the police and the Transportation Ministry’s probes.

 

Sunaryo said the sea transportation department would question Nurwahidah and Sudiyono to determine whether they should both be charged with negligence.

 

“We should look beyond natural causes for the accident,” Sunaryo said, adding that if proven guilty of neglecting professional rules, they would face administrative punishment, such as demotions.

 

A port administrator is responsible for issuing permits to allow ships to depart.

 

Nurwahidah denied accusations that he was responsible, saying that Sabir had submitted a list of the legal passengers and the details of the proposed sea voyage.

 

“The ferry sank eight hours after we gave them the permit, so the responsibility rests in the captain’s hands,” she said.

 

According to laws governing sea transportation, the captain of a ship is responsible for the information he or she submits to port authorities for a permit to sail. The captain would also be responsible for any illegal passengers who are not listed on the official documentation.

 

As an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia relies heavily on sea transportation, with millions of people traveling daily by inter-island ferries, despite long-standing concerns that the aging vessels are frequently overpacked with passengers and cargo.

 

In late 2006, about 400 people died when the MV Senopati Nusantara ferry sank off the northern coast of Central Java Province.

Ancol braces for flooding, deploys pumps

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 01/23/2009 9:51 PM

The management of Jakarta’s biggest amusement park, Ancol, is taking extra measures to minimize the effects of rising water levels, which are expected to bring on widespread flooding some time in early February.

PT Taman Impian Jaya Ancol general manager Harwanto told tempointeraktif.com the company had bought 62 water pumps with the capacity to transfer 490 cubic meters of water per minute each.

On Jan. 12 flooding at Ancol reached knee level. Haryanto said the company had learned from that experience, and wanted Ancol to be ready for potential further flooding. Earlier, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) forecast the rainfall rate would peak at the beginning of next month.

“The flood levels are expected to rise by 1.1 meters … That presents us with a monstrous task,” Haryanto said.

Besides grappling with flooding, he said, the higher water levels could also carry solid waste into the park grounds. (and)

BMG warns of extreme weather in days to come

Indra H & ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Wed, 01/14/2009 3:45 PM

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has warned that extreme weather patterns in the next few days could trigger high waves and heavy downpours in the province and the country's eastern region.

Chief of the BMG office at Juanda International Airport, Endro Cahyono, said the extreme conditions would occur during in the next three days. He said the patterns were related to the impacts of the La Nina phenomenon from the north and Typhoon Charlotte running at high speed, forming a curve from Papua New Guinea through Indonesia's eastern region to the western part of Australia.is a new phenomenon because the La Nina phenomenon is emerging at the same time as a tropical typhoon, raising waves up to 5 meters high and long and heavy downpours in the coming three days," he told The Jakarta Post here Tuesday.

He called on ship operators and seaports to take heed of the extreme weather to minimize the risks of sea accidents.

Separately, Bambang Setiajit, data analyst at the BMG office at Tanjung Perak port, called on local administrations and residents in the province to remain alert for possible disasters such as floods and landslides caused by the worsening weather.

"According to satellite data, the weather will become worse in the coming days and therefore, everyone should prepare for the worst," he said.

He said Java would likely receive a sustained heavy downpour and that all ships should be on the lookout for high waves, which could reach heights of 6 meters in the Java Sea, mainly in the waters between Semarang and Karimun Jawa in Central Java and between Gresik and Bawean in East Java.

He warned that floods could inundate the main streets in Surabaya, including Jl Wonokromo, Jl Maj. Jen. Sungkono and the Rungkut industrial area.

Report: La Nina to stay in Indonesia until March

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 01/09/2009 6:02 PM 

 

A forecast by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that Indonesia will remain affected by La Nina conditions until at least March.

 

"Based on current observations, recent trends and model forecasts, La Nina conditions are likely to continue into the Northern Hemisphere's spring of 2009," a NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC) statement said, as quoted by state news agency Antara on Friday.

 

The CPC said the impact of the La Nina development, which came unusually late for those in the northern hemisphere, would include above-average precipitation across Indonesia.

 

As it is located on the equator, Indonesia feels the impact of climate developments from both the northern and southern hemispheres.

 

The impact of La Nina will include an increase on Indonesia's already high rate of rainfall.

 

A separate report from Jakarta's meteorology and geophysics agency confirmed the CPC report, saying that some parts of the city are likely to suffer from flooding until February.

 

So far, the water level remains safely below the normal level of floodgates across the capital. (emh)

President sends ministers to deal with Manokwari earthquakes` impacts

DISASTER AFTERMATH: Residents inspect a collapsed hotel after an earthquake struck in Manokwari, Papua province, Indonesia, Sunday. A series of powerful earthquakes at dawn killed at least three people and injured dozens more in remote eastern Indonesia on Sunday, cutting power lines and badly damaging buildings. (AP/Budi Setiawan)

Jakarta (ANTARA NEWS) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the press here on Sunday that he had sent Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, Transportation Minister Djusman Syafii Djamal and Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah, to Manokwari, West Papua Province, which was hit by a series of earthquakes on Sunday morning.

The three ministers had been instructed to reach the earthquake-hit location and report about the quake`s impacts as soon as possible, President Yudhoyono said on the sidelines of his visit to Ragunan Zoo, south Jakarta.

The transportation minister was sent to Manokwari because the Manokwari airport was reportedly damaged by the earthquake, according to the head of state.

The airport had to be repaired quickly to ensure smooth distribution of relief aid for the temblor`s victims, he said.

Yudhoyono said that he had talked with West Papua Governor Abraham Octavianus on the phone to coordinate emergency efforts to help local residents affected by the earthquakes.

The President said that he had received a report that four residents had been killed and a number of buildings had been seriously damaged in the disaster.

"However, we have to wait until we get complete information. The most important is that the central and regional governments have worked in accordance with the existing procedures for emergency efforts. I continue to monitor the emergency responses being done," the President said.

According to information on the BMG`s website, Papua Island, the eastern most Indonesian island, was jolted by at least 25 temblors with magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 7.6 on the Richter scale, on Sunday morning.

The earthquakes affected Manokwari and Sorong (West Papua Province), and Biak (Papua Province).

The epicenter of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake was located at 0.88 degrees southern latitude and 133.38 degrees eastern longitude, 76 km southwest of Manokwari, at a depth of 10 km below sea level.

The temblor was felt at the II -III MMI in Sorong, and IV-V MMI in Manokwari.

Hundreds of West Papua`s residents living along coastal areas, evacuated themselves to higher ground in fear of a tsunami, which did not occurred.

BMG warns E. Java tourists on bad weather

The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Sat, 01/03/2009 11:18 AM 

 

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has warned all tourists flocking tourism resorts across East Java on a possible accident following strong wind and heavy rain in the areas in days to come.

 

The BMG's weather forecast Sinta Andayani said on Saturday that heavy rain and strong winds would start striking the province on Sunday and had potencies to cause landslide, whirlwind and flood.

 

“We have predicted that heavy rain may occur in Java island today due to strong air pressure,” she told state news agency Antara on Saturday.

 

“Thus, we demand all tourists to stay alert on any possible accidents caused by bad weather,” she added. (ewd)

Bali tourists on alert for high waves from cyclone Billy

The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Mon, 12/29/2008 11:38 AM

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has warned all tourists visiting Bali to stay alert because cyclone Billy may be bearing waves up to 3-and-a-half meters high to the southern coastline. kompas.com reports.

BMG spokesperson for Bali and Nusa Tenggara areas Sutrisno said Monday his office was expecting Billy to continue affecting beaches across the island chain during the next two days, despite its weakening intensity.

"All visitors must be on the alert for tidal waves which may occur suddenly, particularly along Bali's southern beaches," he said, adding that the storm had originated in Australia's Carpentaria Bay.

He said BMG and Bali Police have warned all travel agencies and resorts to pay careful attention to their guests following the disappearance of five high schoolers in the high waves and severe undertow off Laloan Beach in Tabanan, Bali, on Sunday.

The students are Gede Novi Saputra, Made Candra Rela Putra, I Gusti Ngurah Ananta, Komang Ari Susanto and Made Darma Hermawan, all from Tabanan's Selemadeg 1 high school.

Police are still searching for the five. (ewd)

57 Percent of RI`s beaches vulnerable to tsunami

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Some 57 percent of Indonesia's coastline, or 46,170 km, of the total length of 81,000 km, are prone to a tsunami attack.

 

The data came from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency during the inaguration of a Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS) at the BMG office here Tuesday.

 

After an earthquake followed by a tsunami in Aceh on December 26, 2004, the need for an early warning system had become increasingly urgent.

 

Therefore, on November 11, 2008, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a TEWS which was built under a cooperation between the Indonesian government and 18 state enterprises.

 

The financial and technological aspects of the project were taken care of by Germany, China, Japan, the US and France.